


Mending Links Scrapbook

by Ellenar_Ride



Series: Mending Links [18]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-02-18 06:57:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 0
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21540250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellenar_Ride/pseuds/Ellenar_Ride
Summary: A collection of all the art I draw for the Mending Links 'Verse.
Series: Mending Links [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545610
Comments: 30
Kudos: 35





	1. First Look at Major and Dei

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [This Melody Calling You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23314876) by [mochibun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mochibun/pseuds/mochibun). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Inspired By" Guide:
> 
>   * _This Melody Calling You_ : Ch. 4, "Miss Malanya and the Hero's Shade"
> 


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know how I said Major draws heavily on LU's Time? Not anymore, apparently. Or at least not visually. I sat down to draw him and went, 'why is he wearing full armor when he's basically a homesteader? That makes no sense.' And then I took away the armor and started over, and I like this look a lot better! ... just don't ask where the hair came from.
> 
> And our first look at Dei! I've only described him as the Link from before Skyward Sword, but I subscribe to the theory that the pre-SS Link became the spirit of the Fierce Deity mask, so... He's kind of a spirit haunting his mask? Not really solid, at least not yet. Anyway, I had _so much fun_ with his outfit. I imagine he _just_ got the chance to change out of the armor he's been wearing for literal ages, so he's just having fun playing around with various outfits until he finds a new signature look. Plus the chance to play with shades of blue, as opposed to the Links' usual green, was a blast. :)


	2. Tribal, the Ancient Hero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here she is! My vicious girl! I love her!!! Realtalk though, no idea _why_ I made her outfit so complicated. It took. So long. But she looks so nice! Her color scheme _did_ start drifting into blues, but it's more of a blue-green than Dei's proper blue. I tried to pull it back towards green, but it didn't look as nice, so blue-green it is.
> 
> Fun fact: I've only mentioned Tribal a few times so far, but not once have I used a pronoun for her. I didn't want to give away that she's a girl, since it can be a fun reveal, but I also didn't want to straight up lie, so... I _will_ say Tribal is the only girl of the bunch. All the other Links are male. She doesn't much appreciate being the odd one out, but _every_ Link is the odd one out in one way or another.


	3. Zaki & Acien

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a hazard. Prepare for a ridiculous amount of unnecessary worldbuilding and explanation, because that's what you're getting.
> 
> First, as described in _My Story On My Skin_ , Tribal's people (now named Kazen because sounds, apparently) have very meaningful face paint. The shapes describe a person's place in the tribe and any honors they've received, while the color explains their primary skillset.
> 
> Colors:
> 
>   * Teal (like Tribal's): Sacred Warrior, literally only used by the Hero. She's the only Kazen to _ever_ wear this color.
>   * Bright blue: Warrior who primarily or exclusively uses magic.
>   * Bright green: Adults who _can't_ fight, whether due to injury or inability.
>   * Bright red (like Zaki's): Healer, a non-combatant unless they're attacked.
>   * Dark blue: Warrior who primarily or exclusively uses ranged weapons.
>   * Dark green: Scouts and spies, those who rely on stealth.
>   * Dark red: Warrior who primarily or exclusively uses melee weapons.
>   * Gray: For adults who have no specialty yet.
>   * White/pastels: Children's colors, no meaning.
> 

> 
> Patterns:
> 
>   * Triangle/swirl under eye: Member of the Kazen Tribe.
>   * Dot on cheek/near Kin-Mark: Trained in combat. If only a semicircle, combat training is incomplete.
>   * Dot on forehead: Honored in combat, expressing both exceptional skill and a working knowledge of _when_ to fight.
>   * Inverted triangle/swirl on cheek: Honored Sibling, an important person in the tribe.
>   * Row of triangles on top and bottom of ears: Part of the Sacred Bloodline, a direct descendant of the Hero of Ages.
>   * Triangles/swirls on forehead: Honored for wisdom and knowledge.
>   * Triangles/swirls above eyes: Honored for perception, seeing and seeking truth in all matters.
>   * Small triangles near mouth: Honored for speaking truth, never falsehood, and never dishonorably.
> 

> 
> Now for the people in the picture! The man is Zaki, Tribal's husband, and the girl is Acien, their daughter. Most of what I know about Zaki is in the previous chapter's comments, but I'll compile it here.
> 
> Zaki is the second child of King Mesan Hyrule and his wife, a Sheikah woman named Damis; this makes him the younger brother of Princess Zelda. He traveled as part of the diplomatic party reaching out to the Kazen tribe after a century of silence, and when his group ran into trouble they were rescued by the tribe's most skilled warrior, who also happens to be their princess. Zaki and the warrior princess (who we all hopefully know is Tribal) fell in love, and she followed him back to Hyrule partly because she didn't want to be separated from him and partly because the Hero was needed, as there were signs of Ganondorf's return. Eventually they married and had a daughter, Acien. (Zaki and Zelda don't really look like they're related unless you see them with their parents; Zelda took their father's blond hair and blue eyes and their mother's pale skin; Zaki took their mother's white hair and red eyes and their father's dark skin, which he himself got from his Gerudo mother. It's great. I should do a full family portrait sometime.)
> 
> Acien is little, only four at the time of _My Story On My Skin_ , and she lives with her father and his family. Her mother is often away, fighting on the frontlines of the war against the Crownless King. Honestly, there's not a ton to say about her because she's so young. Her design was so much fun, though! Her outfit is a mix of Tribal's and Zaki's. The parts of her outfit that come from Kazen tradition follow their color symbolism, while the parts that follow Hylian fashion are just pretty, since Hylians don't really go in for color symbolism. Also, while Zaki and Acien's face markings follow Kazen tradition, they're also supposed to invoke the Sheikah Eye.
> 
> Finally, names! I've introduced a lot of names here, so I thought this was the best place to explain. See, a while ago I went through the name of every NPC in BotW, sorted them by race, broke them into syllables, and assigned each syllable a sensible meaning from a list of common name elements. I built the names here from this list.
> 
>   * Zelda: zel (elegant) + da (wisdom), Elegant Wisdom (Hylian)
>   * Link: a single word that just means courageous, rarely used (Hylian)
>   * Zaki: za (pearl) + ki (noble), Noble Pearl (Hylian)
>   * Mesan: mes (spear) + an (sharp), Sharp Spear (Hylian)
>   * Damis: da (blade) + mis (loyal), Loyal Blade (Sheikah)
>   * Acien: a- (beautiful) + ci (lily) + en (wild), Beatiful Wild Lily (Hylian); this one is actually a figuree of speech referring to the untamed beauty of a wildflower left to grow according to its own nature, tarnished when one tries to domesticate and control it (Tribal was making a Point when she named her daughter)
> 

> 
> Literally out of characters now, so I guess I'll shut up.


	4. Miss Malanya and the Hero's Shade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After way too long, another drawing. This picture may not seem like it belongs here, since neither character has been mentioned before, but just you wait. I have _plans_ for them. This picture represents entirely too much time (final count ~20 hours) and entirely too many headcanons. Credit where credit is due: Lonya is heavily inspired by Mochibun's amazing Linked Universe fic _This Melody Calling You_ , which is linked in the "inspired by" section of this story.
> 
> A "brief" introduction to the pair:
> 
> **Miss Malanya/"Lonya"**  
>  The Horse Fairy Lonya is the fusion of "canon" Malanya with Malon. She is known in Hyrule as Malanya; "Lonya" is a nickname those she is close with call her by. She is _incredibly_ old at this point, and her nature as a Great Fairy gives her a slightly alien perspective, but she still loves horses and she still loves Link. Sav is quite good friends with her, having stumbled across her fountain as a child and then again only days after leaving the Great Plateau (he calls her Grandmother affectionately). Malon became Lonya after Major's death, through a combination of wish-magic and a well-reasoned argument with the Golden Goddesses, because she refused to leave the land of the living before her husband. She is a powerful figure of Life, Death, and Balance, but only among horses. (I spent so long on this design you guys. So much of it pulls from the canon designs of Malon and Malanya, and it took _forever_ to mesh them neatly. Plus Malanya's skirt is so detailed—the skirt alone is probably ~8 hours of work.)
> 
> **Hero's Shade/Tune**  
>  The equally-ancient Tune is the Hero's Shade as seen in Twilight Princess. He originally refused to move on because he wanted to teach his successor everything he learned, as is canonically stated in the game, but even after teaching Wolf every lesson he had he still wouldn't leave the land of the living—this time because his wife, Lonya, is still there. He is capable of changing between his shade form (distinctly _not_ a Stalfos, despite common misconception) and his wolf form at will (fun fact: he and Lonya call these forms his Two-Leg and Four-Leg forms, respectively, rather than any sort of rational name), but usually hangs out as a wolf. As Lonya puts it, "Like most people, my husband prefers to wear a skin that actually _has_ skin." He guards her fountain, chasing away those who would do her harm (physical _or_ psychological) and guiding those who genuinely seek her aid to her fountain. During the time when Lonya's worshipers dwindled, he would sometimes seek out people who shared her love for horses and lead them back to her fountain. (This is how Sav meets them, both times). Sav is also very affectionate with Tune, calling him Grandfather.


End file.
